“Confounded rubbish, I call it!” says Mr. Purdy-Pell.
“You ought to hear it from Violet,” says I. “She’s the star explainer of that combination.”
But Violet seems to have faded into the background. We don’t see anything more of her that evenin’, nor she wa’n’t in evidence next mornin’. Doc. Toodle was, though. He begins by tellin’ how he never takes anything but hot water and milk on risin’; but that in the middle of the forenoon he makes it a point to put away about three fresh laid eggs, raw, in a glass of sherry.
“How interesting!” says Mrs. Purdy-Pell. “Then we must drive over to Fernbrook Farm, right after breakfast, and get some of their lovely White Leghorn eggs.”
That was the sort of excursion I was rung into; so the bunch of us piles into the wagonette and starts for a fresh supply of hen fruit. When we gets to the farm the superintendent invites us to take a tour through the incubator houses, and of course they all wants to see the dear little chickies and so on. All but me. I stays and chins with the coachman while he walks the horses around the driveway.
In about half an hour they comes troopin’ back, Toodle in the lead, luggin’ a paper bag full of warm eggs. He don’t wait for the others, but pikes for the wagonette and climbs in one of the side seats facin’ me. We was just turnin’ to back up to the block for the ladies, when a yellow kyoodle dashes around the corner after a cat. Them skittish horses was just waitin’ for some such excuse as that, and before Mr. Driver can put the curb bit on ’em hard enough they’ve done a quick pivot, cramped the wheels, and turned us over on the soggy grass as neat as anything you ever see.
Me bein’ on the low side, I strikes the ground first; but before I can squirm out, down comes Toodle on top, landin’ his one hundred and ninety pounds so sudden that it knocks the wind clear out of me. He’s turned over on the way down, so I’ve got his shoulder borin’ into my chest and the heavy part of him on my leg.
Course, the women squeals, and the horses cut up some; but the driver has landed on his feet and has them by the head in no time at all, so we wa’n’t dragged around any. Noticin’ that, I lays still and waits for Toodle to pry himself loose. But the Doc. don’t seem in any hurry to move, and the next thing I know I hear him groanin’ and mumblin’ under his breath. Between groans he was tryin’ to say over that rigmarole of his.
“I am a child of light—Oh, dear me!—of light and goodness!” he was pantin’ out. “Evil and fear and—Oh, my poor back!—and pain are creatures of—Oh my, oh my!—of darkness! Nothing can harm me!”
“Say, something is goin’ to harm you mighty sudden,” says I, “if you don’t let me up out of this.”